The state of Illinois is currently tryin to pass a bill that will allow breed specific bans. If you are interested in fighting this bill, you can sign the following petition. Just an FYI. I own a pitbull and he is not in the least bit mean and would not want him taken away. Thanks for viewing.

I never really understood this.. I've known some pit bulls that were the sweetest little dogs to be on the earth.. and some "nice breed" dogs were ornery annoying, bratty little things.

It's how the dog is raised and trained.
Our dog thought he was a cat for the longest time. When he was a puppy, the cat kind of "took care" of him.
If we showed him how to be a vicious attack dog, he would have been.

I think they want to try and make sure the attack doesn't occur. As much as I hate more and more regulations, it's generally the pit bull or rotweiller you read about mauling or killing someone.

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Might have something to do with the fact that people who want to raise an aggressive dog are attracted to certain breeds.

If I'm brewing meth at my house, I'm not going to bring home a pekinese to guard it.

Personally I feel laws like this are stupid and serve only to punish the larger public for the actions of a few idiots. But people who would be up in arms if I argued that 'we need to ban handguns because of all those irresponsible handgun owners that kill' are perfectly content to ban specific breeds of dogs, even though that's a symptom, not the root cause.

reminds me of the killer dog story of last october where a "perfectly nice sweet family" dog went crazy.. killed the other dog of his owner first and then attacked the owner (25 year old woman).. a neighbour saved her from her own dog with hitting him with a stick and holding him on distance with a chair untill the police arrived
quote newspaper: "the two policemen took no risks and killed the dog with 17 bullets"

no, i mean penalties against an owner if an attack (or certain types of agression) occurs. from what i understand, they're not much of a disincentive.

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There are penalties... the animal will often be put down (I'm sure that does feel like punishment for most owners because they hopefully love their pet), fined by the city and/or sued by the victims, and I believe there was at least one case of the animal owner having jail time? :conused: Not sure about that last one, though.

And I agree, it isn't right to target specific breeds. And just like with races in humankind, the media does focus in on the same couple of dog breeds.

They tried to do this in Switzerland about 10 days ago, but it got shot down and never got put to vote. They were planning on banning 13 specific breeds from being bought, which got changed to massive taxes, which got thrown out.

A 10 year old got killed by 3 drug-dealer trained pit bulls on his way to school. Lovely.

it's generally the pit bull or rotweiller you read about mauling or killing someone.

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but do statistics support that? i'm awfully sorry i have no link, but here is part of a letter a friend sent to chicago mayor richard daley about that:

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A five year study published in the Cincinnati Law Review in 1982, vol. 53, pg. 1077, which specifically considered both Rottweilers and "pit bulls", concluded in part that:

...statistics did not support the assertion that any one breed was dangerous, ...when legislation is focused on the type of dog it fails, because it is ...unenforceable, confusing, and costly... focusing legislation on dogs that are "vicious" distracts attention from the real problem, which is irresponsible owners.

There are penalties... the animal will often be put down (I'm sure that does feel like punishment for most owners because they hopefully love their pet), fined by the city and/or sued by the victims, and I believe there was at least one case of the animal owner having jail time?

Sword probably won't face criminal charges for the dog attacks, although county officials said he probably will be ticketed for allowing the dogs outside unleashed.

[...]

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felony charage for having pot for personal use, but no charge for the dog attack. this is what i meant when i said they should go after the irresponsible owners, rather than issue a statistics-defying ban on breeds.

Staff Member

I like the idea, but Online Petitions rarely do anything but pool together a group of angry people to vote on something that has little effect, especially in government issues. This is also going to hold less ground as anyone from any region can sigh this petition, regardless of wether or not they live in the state.

You would be better off to pool together people and have each of them contact their local government, or representatives for this topic.

I wish you the best of luck on this topic, as I would never want my dog taken away!

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